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A man walked into a Kmart store in Colerain Township and fatally shot an employee Tuesday, then critically wounded a customer who was among bystanders trying to chase him down, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office said. Police pursued the suspect through Colerain Township into Cincinnati, where the man killed himself after officers stopped his car. The shooter was identified as Paul Faith, 25, of Green Township.

The shooting began in the store at 8451 Colerain Ave. about 7:30 p.m. when a man entered the business, walked to a rear aisle, pulled out a semi-automatic handgun and shot a worker there, the sheriff’s office said.

“The suspect fired at least two rounds,” said sheriff’s office spokesman Steve Barnett.

The employee, Paul Heid, 22, of the 3400 block of Chuckfield Drive, Colerain Township, died at the scene, Barnett said.

Witnesses said after the shooting started inside the store, customers scrambled for cover, but several realized what had happened and began chasing the man as he left the store.

The man turned as he was fleeing and fired several shots at his pursuers. One — James Patrick Daly, 46, of the 9400 block of Rockport Drive in Mount Healthy — was hit, the sheriff’s office said.

He was listed in critical condition Tuesday night at University Hospital.

The shooter continued running through the store parking lot, where he fired a round at Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Robbins, who was on foot, the sheriff’s office said.

Robbins, who was not hurt, fired one shot at the shooter as he got into his car, the sheriff’s department said. The shot missed.

Sheriff’s deputies and Colerain Township police officers pursued the car south on Colerain Avenue.

Cincinnati officers joined the pursuit in Millvale and used road spikes to stop the car on Beekman Avenue.

When officers approached the car, they found Faith dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the sheriff’s office said.

Cincinnati police said they were investigating Faith’s death as a suicide.

The sheriff’s office was still trying to determine a motive for the shooting today.

It was unclear whether the shooting was random or the gunman specifically targeted Heid.

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By Jesse Hyde

OREM - An upset employee at an Orem telemarketing firm stormed out of work Wednesday and threatened to return with a gun.

Fortunately for workers at Convergys, 745 Technology Ave., the woman never made good on her threat.

Utah Valley has already had two workplace shootings this year. In January, a construction worker in Lehi is accused of shooting and killing his boss. One month later an employee at the Provo River Water Users Association allegedly shot and killed his boss in Pleasant Grove.

While workplace violence has actually declined over the past decade, it remains a serious problem, both locally and nationally.

In an average week, one employee is killed and 25 are seriously injured nationally in violent assaults by current or former co-workers, according to recent reports.

Homicide ranks as the second-leading cause of death at work, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Often, workplace violence can be prevented. According to a USA Today report that examined 224 instances of fatal workplace violence, nearly 80 percent of killers leave behind warning signs.

Those signs are usually ignored, however.

“It’s hard to know what to do, because it’s a life and death situation,” said Bruce Blythe, CEO of Atlanta-based Crisis Management International. “If you don’t call the police, you may be in danger, and if you do, you may provoke the situation. It’s like playing with fire.”

Blythe’s firm works with some 100 companies a year who have become aware of a threat from an employee. He said workers can snap for any number of reasons, including stress, anger over wages, termination or mental health issues. Some disgruntled workers make specific threats, as the girl in Orem did, others issue vague warnings of pending violence.

Regardless of the threat, Blythe said employers should take it seriously.

He recommends three precautions for any business:

Establish a policy that any threat, whether from an employee or a customer, is responded to, and develop a way for employees to report it. Ensure employees that the information will be held confidential.

“I can’t tell you the number of incidents where people say they just had a gut feeling this guy or that girl was going to snap,” Blythe said. “They should know exactly who to call and who to contact.”

Form a crisis response team to deal with threats. The team could consist of representatives from the human resources department, the legal department and the security department.

“How do you defuse a threatening environment? How do you follow up? Do you terminate or intervene first? These are questions that should be addressed,” Blythe said.

Consult with an expert. Some consultants can work as counselors with employees who feel they were terminated unfairly. Others can help establish a crisis response plan.

Convergys declined comment about Wednesday’s incident, to which police responded. The employee, who was found by police shortly after making the threat, said she reacted in anger and never intended to carry it out.

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